Select Local Merchants

Reflecting on this childhood, Chris Keating sometimes feels as if he didn't exist. His parents' divorce left him with very little tangible evidence of his formative years, so he's spent his adult life as a photographer making sure children can look back fondly at warm family memories. Chris Keating and his Calgary staff have made this a reality for more than 3,000 families since opening the doors to Towne Photography in 2006. There, the professional photographic crew shoots posed and candid shots of families, children, couples, and babies at picturesque parks or against their studio backdrops, and they also snap triumphant graduate portraits, intimate prenatal shots, and provocative passport pics that make border crossing a breeze. Their ironclad guarantee allows unsatisfied clients to request reshoots, reprints, or resizing on all photographs, and they vow to remake or recapture any artwork that sustains damage over the years. Chris also takes his photographic knowledge on the road to conduct Betterphoto Workshops across the United States and Canada, teaching novice photographers how to artistically preserve their most precious memories.

After decades of winning the admiration of stock-car racing fans with his aggressive driving strategy and off-track charisma, Rusty Wallace now gives others the chance to experience the rush of racing. He joined forces with Sodikart to roll out the Rusty Wallace Kart Experience, pairing kart with driver at some of the country's most celebrated racetracks. Racers can hop in a custom RT8 (or its kid-friendly counterpart, the LR4) and hit the gas, tearing up everything from the versatile road courses and speedy main track of the Atlanta Motor Speedway to the challenging lava pits of the Milwaukee Mile.
But this go-karting business has a big brother?the Rusty Wallace Racing Experience. It's a high-speed trip into the pro-racing trade, with breathtaking ride-alongs and racing experiences in stock cars. Guests buckle up and sit shotgun alongside professional drivers as they fly down straightaways and around curves. They can even get behind the wheel themselves, finally feeling what it's like to be a professional driver.

Helmed by Chef Suki Kaur-Cosier, Cooking Matters invites chefs of all experience levels to nourish their love of the culinary arts in fun, hands-on classes. Every month, she designs a lesson plan that literally expands the horizons of her pupils—many classes highlight cuisines from countries as diverse as Morocco, Italy, Thailand, and Never-Never Land. Other classes help locals adapt to dietary restrictions such as gluten intolerance or calorie restrictions with bold, delicious recipes. The class structure is simple and practical: students step up to the stove and actually prepare a four-course meal on their own. As they work, the chef patrols the room, offering suggestions and scolding watched pots that refuse to boil.

G-force pulls faces taught as feet floor accelerator pedals. The smell of burning rubber fills nostrils. A halo of stadium lights illuminates a quarter-mile of pavement as it passes by in seconds. With help from the experienced instructors and drivers at Ontario Racing Source, anyone can zoom into drag races at the historic St. Thomas Raceway. Before each race, staff give racing skill and safety instruction, and show each new driver how to control their fully prepped cars using nothing more than the console and a few self-esteem-boosting words on how shiny they’re looking today. At regular intervals, visitors can also strap in behind the wheel of high-speed vehicles at the Grand Bend Motorplex and Toronto Motorsports Park.

There isn't an age requirement when it comes to being a rock star. At Studio Arts Academy & Rock School, students as young as 6 weeks old can learn music basics in the Music Together class, an early childhood program that taps into children's innate musical abilities, such as twins crying in two-part harmony. Older youngsters can head to band programs such as Little Rockers?a fun-filled class that explores percussion, keyboards, and singing?and Rock School, which helps participants hone in on which instrument they want to master should they join a band or score all of their conversations.

Focusing largely on watercolours, acrylics, and oils, the resident instructors at Forest City Decorative Artists help students create paintings showcasing vibrant objects such as folk-art fruit baskets, twinkle-eyed cats, or a trio of multihued umbrellas perched in the sand. Other media, from coloured pencils to sculpture, have tiptoed into the curriculum as well. These techniques allow burgeoning artists to expand their repertoire as they shade portraits in various, non-smearing hues or mould expressive figurines known to hopscotch across the pages of paint-by-numbers books.